Oncology/Hematology

Hemophilia treatment: new hope with gene therapy and other advancements

Conditions
May 31, 2024

Hemophilia and other bleeding disorders are rare genetic conditions that affect the body’s ability to properly form blood clots. People with these conditions often face challenges in accessing appropriate care and treatment. This is true not only in developed countries but also in low- and middle-income countries around the world.

One of the biggest access to care issues for people with hemophilia and bleeding disorders is the availability of specialized treatment …

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Lung cancer in Asian American women: Don’t be a statistic (never smoked)

Conditions
May 28, 2024

May is AANHPI Heritage Month so it’s a good time to share again my journey from nonsmoker to lung cancer survivor. It is such an important issue to bring awareness to this little-known and potentially deadly health disparity because, according to the 2020 census, 6.2 percent or 20.6 million people identify as AANHPI (Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander).

Wait. How can you have lung cancer? You’re not a …

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Why preventive care is the cure for our failing health care system

Conditions
May 26, 2024

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
– Thomas Edison

Mr. Edison, if he is watching over us, must be sadly disappointed.

The provocative idea of making cancer centers obsolete might sound extreme, but it underscores a critical vision for health care—shifting from reactive to preventive treatment. Envision a …

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Targeting cancer treatment for better outcomes [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 24, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

We welcome Kevin L. Schewe, a radiation oncologist, as we explore the evolution of cancer treatment from the perspective of someone who has witnessed groundbreaking advancements firsthand. From the significance of targeted therapies …

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A simple poem, and a profound message: Exploring Wendy Cope’s The Orange

Physician
May 23, 2024

Wendy Cope is a poet of modern times. She was born in Erith, Kent. She spent fifteen years teaching primary school in London after graduating from college. She has published five collections of her poems: Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis in 1986, Serious Concerns in 1992, If I Don’t Know in 2001, Family Values in 2011, and Anecdotal Evidence in 2018. Her observation of the commonplace, everyday elements of life …

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Challenges of the past: a physician’s story

Physician
May 4, 2024

My friend is a young physician working in the same hospital as me. We have known each other since childhood. She lived next door to me until we both started high school when she moved to another locality in the same city, but we remained in touch. We started our med school together later on, and this relationship became stronger over the period of years till the completion of our …

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Should we teach business literacy to medical trainees?

Finance
May 3, 2024

Today is the day I live for as a hematology/oncology fellowship program director. There are balloons filled on stage, dinner buffet stations brewing in the back of the conference room, and fellows entering with their proud families in tow for the graduation ceremony. On average, our graduating fellows have completed 14 years of education and training since high school and are finally about to enter the workforce as full-fledged oncologists. …

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Science supports it and patients want it: Bringing whole-person care to cancer treatment

Conditions
May 1, 2024

Patients, as the primary stakeholders in their own well-being, are increasingly showing a profound interest in holistic approaches to cancer care that extend beyond traditional medical treatments. Growing evidence supports this interest, showing that some whole-person and integrative approaches can improve quality of life and survival outcomes. Oncologists’ attitudes are shifting in the same direction, though with less urgency than our patients’.

We recently conducted parallel surveys of oncologists …

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Navigating grief and stress: Embracing catharsis

Physician
April 26, 2024

Recently, a very young colleague of mine who worked in the same hospital as me passed away from sudden cardiac arrest. We were shocked and deeply saddened by his death. A few days later, I met a common friend of ours who told me that he was under a lot of stress due to some family matters and work politics. He had a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. He …

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A Pakistani oncologist’s journey: Navigating commute challenges

Physician
April 20, 2024

I’ve always been afraid of driving. My home is quite far away from my hospital, and for the past eight years, I’ve been traveling via Uber for my daily commute. I don’t have a good memory of roads, lanes, and streets, even in my own city. I just rely on the driver and Google Maps. This experience with Uber and online taxi services is comfortable for me for two reasons: …

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Finding joy beyond medicine: a tale of pet companionship

Physician
April 13, 2024

My question to all the health care workers is, “Have you ever kept pets or tried to keep them?” If the answer is “yes,” then you are indeed very lucky. I think there are only two sources that can bring utter joy to humans in this life. One of them is children, and the other is pets. After a hectic day at work, when you reach home, the innocent laughter …

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Which study is right? Investigating the impact of screening on breast cancer mortality

Conditions
April 13, 2024

A splashy headline in The Washington Post caught my attention: “Breast cancer death rate dropped 58 percent over 44 years in U.S.” A Stanford Medicine news story reports that this victorious conclusion is based on “a new multicenter study led by Stanford Medicine clinicians and biomedical data scientists.” Using observational data, clinical trial data, and simulation modeling, the researchers found that approximately 25 percent of the reduction in …

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Gene therapy’s impact on incurable illnesses

Conditions
April 11, 2024

Gene therapy has been used recently to cure previously incurable diseases, including sickle cell anemia. It is a horrible disease that I have seen so many times in the ER that it haunts me at night, especially one patient. He was a sweet man with a loving and patient demeanor who tolerated the agony he suffered on a weekly basis with saintly patience. My daughter was helping out in the …

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Navigating crucial conversations in health care [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 10, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

We sit down with Kim Downey, a physical therapist, and Frances Mei Hardin, an otolaryngologist, to dive into the nuances of navigating difficult discussions in the medical field. From delivering challenging diagnoses to …

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Suspicions of medical child abuse delayed my child’s cancer diagnosis

Conditions
April 10, 2024

It was November 2014. I was leaving the parking structure of my local children’s hospital when I realized, “They don’t believe us.”

I didn’t know it at the time, but it would take seven more months to find the cause of my eight-year-old daughter’s unremitting abdominal pain. An ultrasound ultimately revealed a malignant mass on the adrenal gland. Ultrasound is a rudimentary imaging technique, so why did it take …

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Confronting colon cancer: a daughter’s regretful journey

Conditions
April 6, 2024

My mother. 63 years old. Colon cancer.

She first noticed rectal bleeding. She made excuses. Maybe it’s hemorrhoids.

She put her physician on a pedestal. He said, “You’re too young to die,” and there was no need for further tests.

Her daughters, both RNs (one an ICU nurse, the other an anesthetist), pleaded with her to get a colonoscopy. She refused. We pleaded with her getting a second opinion. She refused. Her once-plump …

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The curse of the excellent doctor

Physician
April 6, 2024

The reward for good work is always more work. The employer becomes dependent on the quality of work that you do because he knows that you, as a person, are a workaholic and perfectionist. You put your heart and soul into everything you do. No other employers can do the kind of work that you do. But don’t ever think that you would be appreciated for your hard work. You …

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Why minorities need more representation in breast cancer research

Conditions
April 3, 2024

I’ve always been interested in democratizing health care and have tried to incorporate this in my image-guided therapeutics research.

As a health care CEO, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to broaden my research scope and examine a personal area of interest: disparities in health care and how we can address these through innovation and scientific inquiry.

Racial disparities in health care outcomes are a pervasive issue, and breast cancer is not immune …

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Evolution of targeted cancer therapies: a radiation oncologist’s perspective

Conditions
April 2, 2024

On July 1, 1987, I started treating cancer patients as a full-time radiation oncologist – a cancer specialist who uses radiation therapy to help cancer patients beat their disease. Now, nearly 37 years later, I have the privilege of caring for cancer patients at a cancer center. Nearly every type of cancer is treated differently; for example, breast cancer is treated differently than colon cancer, which is treated differently than …

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Beyond safety whistles and pizza: On National Doctor’s Day and every day, physicians deserve humanity

Physician
March 30, 2024

Recently, on an average workday, my hand brushed against the small safety whistle clipped beside my ID badge. Most days, I don’t even remember the whistle is there, a “Happy Doctor’s Day” gift from a few years ago. I dutifully clipped it on, but I can’t say it makes me feel safer.

I remember shrugging when I received it and thinking, well, it’s more practical than pizza.

I also …

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